Daily Photo: We’ll Take a Cup of Food Now, Kindness on the Side

What do nine cats do when they get together? For starters, they DON’T all look at you at once. Some things will never change!

Only Mariposa is missing because I have not yet been able to catch all ten of them in the same shot. Let that be a goal for 2019.

We have lots to remember and hope you made many memories in 2018 as well. Whether they are good or bad, only time will tell.

Happy New Year everyone! See you again next year.

~~~

From Facebook

No, kitties, those are MY toys. Basil and Mariposa tried and just don’t see how tubes and bottles of in and brayers and barens and whatever the heck else is in there can be any fun. I found them to be very fun though!

Basil and Mariposa can’t figure it out.

. . . . . . .

Here are some of my New Year’s Eve greetings from years past including a review of my fosters each year.

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A Year in Fosters: 2016

2016 Year of Fosters

Well, that was quite a monochromatic year of fostering! I included Kallisto even though she was only here overnight because I needed some color. Good think Jack has a pink nose!

I didn’t foster as many cats as usual this year, partly because I had long-term former ferals needing socialization, and I didn’t foster any litters of kittens this year. But I love my brother-sister kittens, and I really enjoy socializing formerly feral kittens. It’s so gratifying to see them change into friendly little cats, or friendly big cats if they take a while.

These sketches aren’t tightly planned out. It’s kind of a test for me to just start somewhere with my black brush marker and draw in all the cats and the lettering and hope it all works out right. I always find things I’d change if I’d do a sketch first and then marker it in, but what fun would that be?

Simon and Theo and I traveled to Savannah in February, and they are permanent little southern kitty gentlemen. I will be posting updated photos very soon.

Hamlet and Ophelia have been with me since September 2015, and have finally decided they are socialized cats, though both are still a little timid and flighty. I will try for adoption for them in January.

Kallisto was taken in by an older couple who live in my town, but came to me through Margo and a call to her vet.

Jack and Diane are here for the holidays when their rescuer, who I’d been helping with their capture, vetting and socialization.

Thanks to each one of you who arrived out of the universe and brought your unique gifts and challenges.

I’m so grateful to Pittsburgh C.A.T. for being able to foster most of these cats with the confidence that I could find a home for them, and for covering the costs of their care. It’s a far cry from running after these cats on my own hoping to catch them all, then all the costs of health care, surgeries and food, and then possibly never finding them a home as I had always done in the past. This year Pittsburgh C.A.T. found homes for almost 500 cats and kittens directly and through WPHS, BCHS and FosterCat. That’s pretty amazing for a bunch of volunteers! I’m so glad to be a part of it.

Happy New Year everyone, may we all be wanted and loved, wherever and whatever species we are, and may we all help those in need whenever we have a chance. May you get a cup of kindness, and give one in return.

~~~

From Previous Years

Daily Sketch: 2015 Foster Kittens and Cats

Another year of fostering! I had thought that most of the cats I’d fostered had been black and I’m surprised to see most of them were not. Everyone jokes about me only permitting black cats to come in, but I went out and got a tortie girl and a litter of five kittens, only one of whom was black! It’s been quite a fun year with all these young cats.

I had intended to sketch this on a larger sheet of watercolor paper so that adding the watercolor tint wouldn’t make the paper curl, but I forgot and started in my sketchbook anyway, so a few areas are a little blurry and distorted because the paper buckled and didn’t hold flat to the glass when I scanned this. Also, I had intended all the adults and older kittens to be about the size of Bella and Basil at the top, but then my hand got wandering. And then I forgot Scarlett there near the center! This was a very fun sketch to do and I wish I’d left myself more time for it.

Enough excuses—the shortcomings are clear, but overall I’m pleased and happy to see all these familiar faces. I have most of their names above their faces, but some didn’t fit well. Here is the rundown.

Bert and Ernie went home the first week in February. Bert’s new name is Simon, but Ernie retained his name. They had both been ferals who had potential for being adoptable, and so it turned out they were.

Josephine was a friendly kitty taken in by someone on Josephine Street in Crafton. A rescuer brought her here on March 4, a birthday gift! I surrendered her to WPHS the next day, and she was adopted two days later.

Scarlett was Charm’s fur sister from the house they’d lived in until abandoned and because she was friendly and Jen, who had been caring for both cats, possibly needed the space in her basement for Charm and her kittens I also brought Scarlett to my house, and there was room at WPHS that day; she was adopted this past autumn.

Then finally we got the big catch. We knew where Charm was, but not where she’d hidden her kittens until May 3 when we planned a rescue and caught them as they came out from under a porch. I brought them all here, the first time since Mimi arrived with the Four that I’d had a litter of kittens in the house. The kittens were all adopted in early June: Splash became Charlie, Samwise and Higgins are Sam and Higgins, and Zorro and Crayola are Dinah and Finn; all are listed under “Charm’s kittens”. Charm was adopted at the end of August. Charmee, that is. That name stuck for me and her adopter.

Alvin, Simon and Theodore came here on June 30, three feral kittens who’d had their surgeries and been in foster for about a month and were friendly with other cats but not people. They became Alvina, when I found a spay scar on Alvina’s belly, Simon and Theo, then Teddy Bear. Then Alvina went home the second week of October and her name is now Salina. Simon and Teddy Bear will be heading for my niece’s house in Savannah in about two weeks. They socialized very nicely.

Hamlet and Ophelia arrived here on September 15. They had not socialized in foster and had been placed in an orientation cage in a barn so they could be barn cats, but were very frightened there. Ophelia socialized rather quickly, but Hamlet is still making up his mind whether “to be, or not to be, socialized…”.

Thanks to each one of you who arrived out of the universe and brought your unique gifts and challenges. All but Hamlet and Ophelia have integrated with the household. I am starting them now and I’ll see how it goes.

I’m so grateful to Pittsburgh C.A.T. for being able to foster these cats with the confidence that I could find a home for them, and for covering the costs of their care. It’s a far cry from running after these cats on my own hoping to catch them all, then all the costs of health care, surgeries and food, and then possibly never finding them a home as I had always done in the past. This year Pittsburgh C.A.T. found homes for 445 cats and kittens directly and through WPHS, BCHS and FosterCat. That’s pretty amazing for a bunch of volunteers! I’m so glad to be a part of it.

I’m also happy to work with WPHS in helping cats find homes too—Basil, Bert and Ernie came from there through Pittsburgh C.A.T.’s partnership with the shelter, and Josephine and Scarlett went there and found homes. Also, through working with Pittsburgh C.A.T. as a foster organization, WPHS was able to achieve a 90% save rate for all the animals in their care for four months at the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015. It’s a pretty big deal for a big city shelter that takes in about 1,000 animals each month to achieve a “no-kill” status.

Happy New Year everyone, health and love to us all in the new year, people and cats and dogs and all animals and living things everywhere, all over the earth.

Thanks to each one of you who arrived out of the universe and brought your unique gifts and challenges.

Lady Emeraude with 19 years of wisdom and wear and tear, we were glad to give you a few months of being the absolute star of the household and our purrs and energy when you were ill, and to grieve you when you left. We know you were happy. You radiated happiness. We still feel it where you slept. We will never forget you.

Kennedy, our brother, we recognized you the moment we saw you, and though you only had weeks left in your journey we were glad you made it before your travels were over. You belonged here, and you are a part of this family, the fifth spirit sharing our age and our furs, forever.

Smokie, Bella, Bert and Ernie, with your great need and desire to learn to trust the human and let go of your fears, we are glad to show you how to be happy housecats, how to play and wrestle and love, and cast you on your journey to a long and happy life.

A year from now, who knows?

Just as I finished this sketch and began my post listing the dates above, watching the ball drop in Times Square on my computer just now, I heard the familiar big band Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians’ “Auld Lang Syne” which reminds me of my parents and growing up, followed by Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” which makes me cry no matter what, and by the time Iz Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow” started I was done.

Happy New Year everyone, health and love to us all in the new year, people and cats and dogs and all animals and living things everywhere, all over the earth.

Auld acquaintance shall ne’er be forgot, nor days of auld lang syne.

~~~

Happy Mew Year 2014!

Happy Mew Year!

This about says it all! Giuseppe, Mewsette, Mr. Sunshine, Jelly Bean and Mimi—
and, of course, their human too—all wish you a healthy and prosperous 2014.

May all your dreams come true, and may you find more to pursue!

. . . . . . .

Happy Mew Year! (2013)

“Happy New Year!”

This about says it all! Giuseppe, Mewsette, Mr. Sunshine, Jelly Bean and Mimi—
and, of course, their human too—all wish you a healthy and prosperous 2013.

May all your dreams come true, and may you find more to pursue!

Pittsburgh C.A.T. 2019 Calendar: Rescue, Foster, Rehome, Repeat 2019

Rescue, Foster, Rehome, Repeat 2019: Pittsburgh C.A.T. 2019 Calendar

Each month features a cat or cats and the story who Pittsburgh C.A.T. volunteers rescued through TNR or rescue from abandonment, neglect or abuse, offered medical treatment, fostering, socialization, and a loving forever home that met their individual needs. Read more and purchase.

Copyright

All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.

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From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, The Creative Cat offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats.
From catchy and creative headlines to factual articles and fictional stories, The Creative Cat provides constant entertainment and important information to people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

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